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VS Cancels Glasgow & Belfast - Orlando for 2021

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Old Apr 29, 2021, 7:29 am
  #1  
TBD
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VS Cancels Glasgow & Belfast - Orlando for 2021

Virgin Atlantic seems to have cancelled their GLA/BFS flights to/from Orlando this year. Further, I see some complaints on Twitter that Virgin hasn't notified travelers, despite the flights being cancelled over a week ago. Although I understand it's tough times for VS, I thought the UK was trending towards reopening in time for these summer/seasonal flights. What a disappointment.
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Old Apr 29, 2021, 7:44 am
  #2  
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Originally Posted by TBD
Virgin Atlantic seems to have cancelled their GLA/BFS flights to/from Orlando this year. Further, I see some complaints on Twitter that Virgin hasn't notified travelers, despite the flights being cancelled over a week ago. Although I understand it's tough times for VS, I thought the UK was trending towards reopening in time for these summer/seasonal flights. What a disappointment.
Surely GLA/BFS - MCO flights are full of Brits / Irish going to see Mickey. So the question isn't UK trending towards reopening (although it isn't removing the testing/quarantine requirements that make travel to the UK a "don't bother" for most), but whether the US is going to open up to Brits.
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Old Apr 29, 2021, 8:17 am
  #3  
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Originally Posted by craigthemif
Surely GLA/BFS - MCO flights are full of Brits / Irish going to see Mickey. So the question isn't UK trending towards reopening (although it isn't removing the testing/quarantine requirements that make travel to the UK a "don't bother" for most), but whether the US is going to open up to Brits.
Surely it's reciprocal, though. UK will reopen to Americans at the same time the US opens to Brits.
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Old Apr 29, 2021, 10:12 am
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Originally Posted by TBD
Surely it's reciprocal, though. UK will reopen to Americans at the same time the US opens to Brits.
AFAIK, the UK has remained open to Americans the entire time. It's merely the quarantine and testing requirements (along with a major lockdown for the last few months) that make people unwilling to bother.

Although reciprocity should come into it, it's still America First despite the change in president.
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Old Apr 29, 2021, 10:42 am
  #5  
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Originally Posted by craigthemif
AFAIK, the UK has remained open to Americans the entire time. It's merely the quarantine and testing requirements (along with a major lockdown for the last few months) that make people unwilling to bother.

Although reciprocity should come into it, it's still America First despite the change in president.
This is neither the covid forum nor OMNI/PR. Let's try to get back to VS operational schedules.
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Old Apr 29, 2021, 11:11 am
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This isn’t surprising as things remain unchanged between the US and UK. What is surprising is that things still remain unchanged between the US and UK. I’m surprised they haven’t figured out the politics and semantics of a travel corridor yet for visa waiver travel.

For the airline industry’s difficulties, VS with a primarily ex-UK TATL network should be sitting in a good position as things settle here and at the other end. A luxury perhaps that the EU doesn’t have yet and I can’t help but feel in the past week or two that we are waiting for things to improve there before they’ll improve here for US travel?
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Old Apr 29, 2021, 12:54 pm
  #7  
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Originally Posted by TBD
This is neither the covid forum nor OMNI/PR. Let's try to get back to VS operational schedules.
This whole thread is OMNI. The routes are suspended / cancelled. End of story.

Everything else is just speculation about why and/or a vague complaint about VS' communication of the cancellation to the handful of people who were booked.
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Old Apr 29, 2021, 1:05 pm
  #8  
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You're welcome to leave if there's nothing to discuss, Craig.

Interestingly, the VS website still lists this flight as part of their summer schedule.
I also saw, as part of the above Twitter posts, that Virgin felt they were going to miss the summer (school) holidays in Scotland.


....when are summer holidays in Scotland? I'm still hoping our borders are open by mid/late June ... surely that's still in time for holidays,.

Last edited by TBD; Apr 29, 2021 at 1:14 pm
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Old Apr 29, 2021, 2:49 pm
  #9  
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The dates of Scottish school holidays are available on the internet.

There is still the uncertainty about whether or not the US border will be open for tourism and what requirements there may be when entering the US and then returning home. VS may have taken a view that it is better to cancel sooner rather than later especially if advanced bookings are low.
.
When an airline cancelss a flight they usually notify people on the earliest flights first to offer them refunds or rebooking then move down the date list.

Also VS is only obligated to inform tjose that booked direct. If you booked using a TA then they should inform you and then deal with rebooking / refunds because they will be the ones doign that work.
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Old Apr 30, 2021, 5:34 am
  #10  
 
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Originally Posted by pazza2000
This isn’t surprising as things remain unchanged between the US and UK. What is surprising is that things still remain unchanged between the US and UK. I’m surprised they haven’t figured out the politics and semantics of a travel corridor yet for visa waiver travel.

For the airline industry’s difficulties, VS with a primarily ex-UK TATL network should be sitting in a good position as things settle here and at the other end. A luxury perhaps that the EU doesn’t have yet and I can’t help but feel in the past week or two that we are waiting for things to improve there before they’ll improve here for US travel?
A travel corridor is one thing...travelling around the US once there is the issue.
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